That Christmas

By: xXxDaughteroftheKingxXx

AN: So, I was bored... And I've had the idea of a girl who wasn't very good around crowds going to a Christmas party that her friend dragged her to and meeting a cute guy stuck in my head for a while, just with different characters. So, I wrote this originally with OCs, then I realized that it would be good for Percabeth. Excuse the OOCness, particularly Annabeth's and Piper's. I think I did pretty good with Percy and Silena though. :)

And yes, I know it's not Christmas. But I love Christmas, and I want to write something for it.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HoO.

And yes, this is AU. No gods, no demigods. No Greeks, no Romans.

"Aw, come on, Silena, do I have to go?" I whined.

She rolled her eyes, continuing to drag me to the door. "You're already here, and I'm your ride home," she reminded. "You're stuck."

"That's what she said."

Silena giggled, pressing the door bell. "Gah, I've rubbed up on you too much,"

"Gee," I said sarcastically, wrenching my wrist out of her grasp, "I couldn't tell!"

"Quit it with the sarcasm, will you?"

"No," I said, smirking slightly. "I hate this dress, you know?" I glanced down at the silky red strapless dress I was wearing and grimaced. Even though I was wearing a black shrug and a coat, I was freezing, because—Hello!—it is December, and this is New York.

"Lighten up, and smile," Silena ordered. "You look beautiful." I was about to retort when the door flew open, and I found myself face to face with a tall—not that I have any room to talk—Native American woman that was wearing a sparkly green dress.

"Silena!" the woman said happily, smiling widely. Her voice was loud and clear, and I could tell that when she said something, everyone would listen.

Silena smiled, reaching into the house to give her a hug. "Hey, Piper. This is my friend, Annabeth," I waved at the woman from my spot on the porch.

Piper grabbed Silena's arm, and pulled her into the house. "Hi, nice to meet you!" she said brightly. "I'm Piper McLean."

"Pleased to meet you, Piper," I said smoothly, stepping somewhat shyly into the house. "Like Silena said, I'm Annabeth Chase."

"Well, feel free to mingle with everyone," Piper said, a warm smile on her face. "The food's over there—" She pointed to the left side of the room, where a two large tables of food sat, "—and the bathroom's right down the hallway by it. Second door to the right, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay, thanks,"

She smiled, turning back to Silena. "Come on, Beckendorf is here too!" Silena's face brightened visibly, and I waved at her just as Piper dragged my friend in the opposite direction of the snack table.

I sighed, glancing around the room. It seemed like a normal house—cozy and such—, but people were crowding around it like crazy. A lot of furniture must've been moved around, because there was a large space for people to talk and play games in the middle of the room. I felt like an outcast. I didn't even want to be at Piper's Christmas party; Silena just brought me here because I needed to 'see the world' apparently.

"Guess I'll go get punch," I muttered to myself, walking towards the two tables. People laughed and talked around me, and I found myself mumbling, "Excuse me," or "Pardon me," more than I had in the entire year, along with having to squeeze in between the large crowd of people. Guess Piper has a lot of friends.

After about fifteen "Excuse me,"'s, I managed to get to the snack table, where, lo and behold, there was a big bowl of red punch.

The only problem? Someone was already there, and of course, it's a bit awkward to get punch while someone else is. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the person getting punch was a really cute guy?

Right. I'm twenty-two years-old, and I don't have a boyfriend, so I have every right to check out cute guys. No hate.

So, I just stood there, shuffling my foot awkwardly, waiting for him to finish pouring punch into his little cup. I tried not to stare at him, which was pretty hard, considering he was actually pretty cute. Oh, what does he look like? Well, he was tall—even taller than I was—with messy black hair and sea green(I think; it was hard to see with the lighting) eyes. Normally, I would go for a guy with blonde or brown hair and brown or blue eyes, but I think he would be the exception.

Now, you give me something to build, some blueprints, and many, many pencils, and I'll draw out the blueprints for whatever you want me to build. You ask me to shoot a target that's a few yards away? I'll hit the bullseye. You ask me to talk to a cute guy that I don't even know? That's where I draw the line.

The man cleared his throat, and I glanced up to see him holding out a cup of punch, a smile on his face.

With a small, shy smile on my face, I took the cup, my hand brushing against his in the process. "Th-thanks," I stammered, the heat rising to my face.

He nodded. "No prob." There was a short pause, then he said, "Are you… are you new here? I don't think I've ever seen you at one of Piper and Jason's parties." The way he said it, it seemed like Piper had a lot of parties.

"No… I mean, um, yeah," I said, mentally smacking myself for acting like an idiot. Smooth, very smooth indeed, Annabeth. I thought.

I took a deep breath, then corrected, "No, I've never been to one of these parties, so yes, I am new here."

He laughed, but it wasn't a mean laugh like wow-you're-so-lame, but it was more of a warm, funny, you're-kind-of-cute laugh. "Cool. I'm Percy Jackson," he introduced, holding out his hand.

I smiled somewhat shyly and reached out to shake his hand. And, as corny as this sounds, the second I touched his hand, it sent a spark up my hand—so intense I nearly broke away from the handshake. "Annabeth Chase," I said.

Percy grinned. "Ah, so you're Silena's roommate." He looked me up and down skeptically. "Huh. I thought you'd be… you know, nerdy and ugly and all that."

I raised an eyebrow. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?" I asked, somewhat suspiciously, somewhat defensively.

He laughed. "Sure, take it like you please. I guess it was supposed to be, but I mean, the way she described you—being the top of your class, getting into some good college and all that—made most of think you're some ugly nerd that had no social life."

I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "Gee, that makes me feel so good about myself," I said dryly. "How do you know that I'm not an ugly nerd that has no social life?"

"Well, you're obviously not ugly, so that's something. And as for the rest, you're at one of the largest parties in the city," he said smugly. "So, I was wrong about you, and you should feel good about that, because I'm rarely wrong."

I felt my cheeks redden when he said I obviously wasn't ugly, but indirectly… wasn't he calling me pretty? Er, I think he was, and I certainly hoped so.

Oh God, Silena really has been rubbing off on me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked at him, trying to hide my embarrassment. "Are you now?" I said in an attempt to keep my cool.

A smirk formed on his face. "Well, yeah, of course. I have a reputation of being always right, you know?"

I nearly snorted. "I bet you do, Mr. Jackson. And you also seem to have a reputation of being a bad liar."

"Hmm, who says I'm lying?" Percy retorted, still smirking. "Most of the time, whether my cousin Thalia likes it or not, I am right, like you apparently, according to Silena. In fact, she tells me that you and I might make good friends." He leaned down, looking directly into my eyes, an amused expression on his face. "Is she wrong?"

Part of me wanted to smack him for getting that close to me. Another part wanted to barf. Yet another part was carefully analyzing his face, taking in every detail. And the last part wanted to kiss him or something like that. If possible, my cheeks got even warmer, which was just great.

"Why don't," I tried, but my voice came out an octave higher than usual. I swallowed the large lump in my throat, and managed to say, "Why don't you tell me?"

Percy smiled, then stepped away from my face. Fishing around in his pocket, he pulled out a pen that had some foreign writing that looked like Greek on it and grabbed my arm. I was about to ask him what he thought he was doing, when he starting scribbling something onto my right arm. Before I could even protest, Percy let go of my hand and grinned.

"There," he said. "Call me sometime, okay?" With a wink, he grabbed his cup of punch and walked into the crowd of people.

I, on the other hand, stood there, speechless. I hadn't really had a guy hit on me for a while—not since I'd broken up with my previous boyfriend, Luke— and the fact that it was an incredibly… well, cute guy who hit on me… I stared down at the number etched into my arm, and smiled.

Thank you, Silena.

AN: Okay, that wasn't too bad. I actually kind of like this. It's cute, ha.

And no, Jason and Piper aren't married... yet. They just live with each other, ha. Silena and Beckendorf can be either be together, or they can't. Up to you to decide.

Review, blah, blah, blah. Thanks for reading!

(Are you happy, Terra? I added in CHRISTMAS PARTY.)